Willem Piso (in Dutch Willem Pies, in Latin Gulielmus Piso, also called Guilherme Piso in Portuguese) (1611 in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration w ...

– 28 November 1678 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

) was a Dutch

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and naturalist who participated as an expedition doctor in

Dutch Brazil Dutch Brazil ( nl, Nederlands-Brazilië), also known as New Holland ( nl, Nieuw-Holland), was a colony of the Dutch Republic in the northeastern portion of modern-day Brazil, controlled from 1630 to 1654 during Dutch colonization of the Americ ...

from 1637 – 1644, sponsored by

count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York ...

Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen John Maurice of Nassau ( Dutch: ''Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen''; German: ''Johann Moritz von Nassau-Siegen''; Portuguese: ''João Maurício de Nassau-Siegen''; 17 June 1604 – 20 December 1679), called "the Brazilian" for his fruitful period a ...

and the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ...

. Piso became one of the founders of tropical medicine.

Life and career

Piso was born in Leiden to church organist Hermann Pies and Cornelia van Liesvelt. He studied in Leiden and received a degree in medicine from

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Georg Marcgrave and the painters Albert Eckhout and

Frans Post Frans Janszoon Post (17 November 1612 – 17 February 1680) was a painter during the Dutch Golden Age. He was the first European artist to paint landscapes of the Americas, during and after the period of Dutch Brazil In 1636 he traveled to ...

. There, he recommended the consumption of fresh fish, vegetables, and fruits after discovering that soldiers and seamen suffered from physical problems including night blindness resulting from

malnutrition Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues ...

. Piso identified Brazilian lemons as being particularly effective in overcoming scurvy. In 1644, Piso returned along with the Count to the Netherlands. Piso lived in Leiden and then moved to Amsterdam, where he was a part of the scientific community. In 1655, he became inspector of the Amsterdam Medical College, and later its dean. Together with Georg Marcgrave, and originally published by Joannes de Laet, Piso wrote the '' Historia Naturalis Brasiliae'' (1648), an important early Western insight into Brazilian flora and fauna. He also published as part of this work four parts titled ''De medicina Brasiliense'' in which he examined tropical diseases and indigenous therapies (including the use of ipecacuanha-root and leaves of the jaborandi), Piso collected plants and animals in Brazil. In 1658, he published another work, which is a second edition of the ''Historia'' titled ''De Indiae Utriusque re naturali et medica.'' He was the sole author of this and he is said to have tried to undermine Markgraf's work, and many careless errors, leading to criticism from Markgraf's brother and even Linnaeus. He is buried near Rembrandt in the

Westerkerk The Westerkerk (; en, Western Church) is a Reformed church within Dutch Protestant Calvinism in central Amsterdam, Netherlands. It lies in the most western part of the Grachtengordel neighborhood ( Centrum borough), next to the Jordaan, betwe ...

in Amsterdam.

Honours

A minor planet,

11240 Piso Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number), the natural number following 10 and preceding 12 * one of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011, or any year ending in 11 Literature * ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *''El ...

, and 2 types of plant genus; '' Pisonia'', and ''

Pisoniella ''Pisoniella'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Nyctaginaceae. It only contains one known species, ''Pisoniella arborescens'' It is native to (northwestern) Argentina, Bolivia and Mexico. The genus name of ''P ...

'' both belonging to the family Nyctaginaceae, are named for him.

References

External links

Biography
at Illustrated Garden.org
De Indiae utriusque re naturali et medica libri quatuordecim :quorum contenta pagina sequens exhibet
1611 births 1678 deaths 17th-century Dutch physicians 17th-century Latin-language writers Dutch naturalists 17th-century Dutch naturalists 17th-century Dutch botanists People from Leiden Sailors on ships of the Dutch West India Company 17th-century Dutch scientists People of Dutch Brazil Pre-Linnaean botanists {{Netherlands-med-bio-stub